


A Night to Remember

by captainamergirl



Category: General Hospital
Genre: Captain Save a Ho to the rescue lol, F/M, Jason and his hero complex, Short Story, Year: 2008
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 05:14:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19882228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: Blame it all on Maxie and her bright ideas...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set in Late 2008. Enjoy!

**Part 1**  
  
**_New Year’s Eve 2008_**  
  
Maxie had seen how low Sam’s spirits had fallen since her breakup with Lucky. Maxie had witnessed her come so far only to have her hopes and her heart stomped on all over again. She looked almost as miserable and lonely as she had after her split with Jason Morgan.  
  
But Maxie had also seen the way Sam came to life around Jason again lately; saw the way her dark eyes sparked with fire and ice.  
  
Maxie knew exactly what she had to do. Tonight Sam would get back the life she lost – courtesy of one Maxie Jones.

* * *

“No, Maxie, I’m not going,” Sam grumbled, flopping back on the sofa.  
  
“Come on, Sam! It’s a costume ball. There’s going to be loads of single men –“  
  
Sam held up a hand. “Hold it right there! I am absolutely _through_ with men! Single or otherwise. I don’t exactly have a great track record with any of them.”  
  
“Oh, who cares? Live a little. Put on your sexiest, come-hither dress and come strut your stuff. I guarantee you’re going to have a great time!”  
  
Maxie immediately grabbed Sam by the hand and pulled her kicking and screaming down the hall.

* * *

“You must go, Stone Cold,” Spinelli said, following Jason to the kitchen where Jason retrieved a beer from the fridge.  
  
“The fair Maximista would never forgive the Jackal if he did not bring you along for the festivities,” Spinelli continued.  
  
Jason sighed. “Spinelli, why would Maxie even care if I went to this thing or not?”  
  
Spinelli looked away nervously. “That is not of great importance at the moment. Getting you there, however, is. Think of the last few town gatherings. Murder and mayhem abounded most heinously. If evil should erupt again, who would halt it if you’re not there?”

"The cops."

"But we do not trust them, correct?"  
  
Jason just shrugged.

* * *

“Lucky’s here,” Sam observed as they walked into the Metro Court ballroom. She could tell it was him even with his mask on. He was draped all over Liz Webber.  
  
“So?” Maxie said.  
  
“ _So_ that means I’m gone.” Sam started for the door that they had just come through.  
  
Maxie grabbed her hand. “Oh no, you don’t. You came here to have fun and that’s just what you’re going to do.”  
  
“Not likely,” Sam grumbled.  
  
“Oh trust me, you’re going to have the night of your life,” Maxie assured her as she spotted Spinelli walk into the room with Jason. 

* * *

Jason spotted Sam as soon as he walked into the ballroom. Even with her sparkly mask on he recognized the way her dark hair curled at the ends and fell naturally over her petite shoulders. He knew the curves that filled out her dress intimately, although it had been so long since he had caressed them …  
  
“Spinelli, I don’t want to --” he started, but when he turned around, Spinelli wasn’t there.  
  
He realized he had spent so much time staring at Sam that he had totally missed Spinelli slip away.  
  
He sighed and started for the exit.

* * *

Sam almost laughed out loud when she saw Jason walk into the ballroom without a mask. Of course he wouldn’t wear one, but still, it was strange to even see him here. It felt strange to even be in the same room without one of them wanting to kill the other. She wondered why he had come. Parties weren’t exactly his thing.  
  
She watched him come in and leave almost immediately. She sighed. Why did she care if he stayed or went? Why did she even care about him, period?  
  
She then turned around and noticed that Maxie was gone.

* * *

“Hurry, Spinelli,” Maxie urged, leaning over his shoulder.  
  
“Maximista, as much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, you do not want the Jackal toasted like a Poptart … _I hope._ This is delicate work. If I cut the wrong wire –“  
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Maxie said, waving a hand dismissively. Spinelli was taking much, much too long for her liking.  
  
“If you hurry up, there’s a dance and a really _hot_ kiss in it for you,” Maxie said, running her fingers slowly through his shaggy hair.  
  
Spinelli gulped and immediately severed the correct wire, causing the whole hotel to fall into darkness.

* * *

A _very_ satisfied Spinelli trailed Maxie out of the basement and upstairs to the ballroom. “Remember what you’re supposed to say?” she asked.  
  
He just nodded. He was felt so euphoric at the moment that it didn’t matter that he was about to deceive his best friend and employer. If Jason killed him, at least he would die happy …  
  
They heard panicked voices murmuring in the darkness and Maxie squinted to find Sam. She was sitting at the bar, looking totally unperturbed while Carly Jacks walked around telling everyone to suck it up; the lights would be back on shortly.

* * *

Jason was climbing into his car when he noticed Spinelli running over.

“What?” Jason asked.  
  
Spinelli said in a rush, “Stonecold, there is a matter of the most dire importance that you must -”  
  
“English, Spinelli.”  
  
“Yes, Stone - er, sir. The hotel lights are all out. I think I heard screaming like someone was in grave distress.”  
  
Jason noted the way Spinelli shifted from foot to foot and looked in every which direction but his, but as he turned to look back at the hotel, he could see that it was indeed blanketed in darkness.  
  
Jason sighed. “What can I do?”  
  
“Save us.”

* * *

Sam was sitting at the bar, still nursing a beer as she wondered why the hell she had allowed Maxie to talk her into coming to this lame party.  
  
Just then Maxie herself rushed over and screamed that Spinelli was missing.  
  
“Maybe he went to the bathroom,” Sam said with a shrug.  
  
“No, Sam, he went downstairs to check out the breakers or whatever - you know, see why the lights went off - and he hasn’t come back. I am _sooo_ worried. You have to help me!”  
  
Before Sam could stop her, Maxie was yanking her off the bar stool and pulling her through the crowd.

* * *

“I’m telling you, Maxie, he’s not here,” Sam said as they moved between the aisles of stacked boxes and files in the basement. “But maybe I can tell you why the lights went off.”  
  
Maxie bit her lip and nodded. “Okay … I just have a bad feeling something happened to him.”  
  
Sam found a dusty flashlight in a pile of blankets and held it up as she pried open the door to the fuse box. She noticed the severed wires right away and sighed.

* * *

Jason had pulled his gun out of the glove compartment and was walking quickly with Spinelli through the alley behind the hotel. “Stonecold, do you really think it is wise for you to be swinging that … thing around?”  
  
“I’m not swinging it.”  
  
“Okay - carrying it then? What if the Jackal was wrong and no one is in distress and you accidentally shoot an innocent bystander - or even someone _not-so-innocent_ ,” he added, thinking of himself and his Maximista.  
  
“I’ll be careful,” Jason said as they entered the hotel from the staff entrance and headed down the basement stairs.

* * *

Jason heard muffled voices in the basement as he and Spinelli inched down the staircase. Spinelli had either been very right and something - in his big words - “nefarious” was going on, or it was some kind of setup. He actually hoped for the former; it had been awhile since he’d been to target practice.  
  
Jason pushed back the door and cocked his gun. “Come out here right now whoever you are,” he said.  
  
To his shock, Sam and Maxie edged forward. “Don’t shoot,” Maxie muttered.

* * *

“Maxie, what did you do?” Sam demanded.  
  
Jason glared at Spinelli. “So this is what - some kind of trick?”  
  
“Duh, Jason,” Sam said. She started for the door but Maxie yanked her back by the arm, really hard, sending her sprawling across the floor.  
  
“Sorry, Sam,” Maxie said. “But this is for your own good.”  
  
Jason immediately set the gun down on a shelf and went to help Sam up. Before Sam could warn him though, Maxie had grabbed the gun, pushed Spinelli out of the room, and slammed the door. They could hear the locks turning from the outside.  
  
Sam wanted to kill Jason.


	2. Chapter 2

Spinelli turned to Maxie. “Do you really think we did the right thing, Maximista?”  
  
Maxie nodded as she slipped the gun into her Kate Spade purse. “Definitely. You’ll be thanking me when all four of us are celebrating at our double wedding.”  
  
Spinelli about choked to death on that. “Max-Maximista, you don’t mean … Us? The Jackal and you … Married?”  
  
Maxie smiled. “Stranger things have happened.” She then kissed him on the forehead, yelled “get comfortable” to the prisoners inside of the room and hurried up the stairs with Spinelli behind her.

* * *

“Look what you did!” Sam snapped as she shook free of Jason’s grasp and ran over to the door, pounding on it. “You got us locked up - _together!”_

_“Me?”_ Jason asked. “How the hell is this my fault?”  
  
“Because if you weren’t so stupid -”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
“Oh shut up and just help me get his door open.”  
  
Jason said, “Its reinforced steel. We’re not getting out of here until someone let’s us out.”  
  
“Then I am just going to scream until someone hears me,” Sam said defiantly and began to shout, _“Get us out of here!”_ at the top of her lungs.

* * *

“Sam, it’s useless.”   
  
“No, it can’t be!” Sam said. “I can jimmy the lock! I’ve got a pocket knife in my purse!”  
  
“And that is … where …?” Jason said pointedly.  
  
Sam groaned. “Upstairs.” She turned to him. “I am so going to kill you for this!”  
  
“This isn’t my fault, Sam.”  
  
“It’s completely your fault! You never go to parties. Why did you have to come this one?”  
  
“So I’m not allowed to go out?”  
  
“You never liked to before.”  
  
“Spinelli told me something bad could happen -”  
  
“And you decided to come play Superman, as usual! You walked right into their trap!”

* * *

Jason sighed. “Sam, look, if you want to kill someone so badly, why not kill Maxie and Spinelli when we get out of here?”  
  
_“If_ we get out,” Sam said. “I can picture us turning into skeletons down here.”  
  
“You always did have a big imagination,” Jason said.  
  
“Well I never imagined you would do any of the things you did and said to me in the last two years.”  
  
Jason sighed, gave her a look that said, _“Are we really going to go there now?”_  
  
Sam crossed her arms and leaned against the door, sending him a look back that said, _“Do you have anything better to do?”_

* * *

Jason sighed again. He had never wanted to hurt Sam. But he didn’t know how to communicate that to her, not when she was looking at him with such anger, hatred, and worse - pain - in her eyes.  
  
“Sam, I didn’t -”  
  
“You didn’t do a lot of things, Jason. Like trust in me. Or have faith in me or … love me …”  
  
“I didn’t want to hurt you and never have I ever said I didn’t love you.”  
  
Sam watched him with dark, stormy eyes. “Threatening to kill someone is not the best way to show someone you care. Why don’t you try sending a dozen roses next time?”

* * *

Sam watched Jason shifting uncomfortably on the hard work bench where he had settled - or was trying to. She knew she had broached a dark subject but she didn’t care. She crossed her arms and waited for him to tell her again how wrong she was for allowing his son to be kidnapped, for hiring thugs to threaten poor saintly Elizabeth…

But to her surprise he just said, “You saved my son from Karpov’s men. I haven’t really thanked you for that, have I?”  
  
Sam’s eyes widened. “You didn’t thank me, no. But I think it’s a fair trade considering what I did …”


	3. Chapter 3

“I mean, not really,” Sam said. “What I did was unforgivable. But you hurt me, Jason, and I didn’t even really know what had happened until it was over and then - I just didn’t -”  
  
She started to pace. “I don’t even know why I’m telling all of this to you. You’re just an emotionless sack of potatoes anyway. The only things you know how to do are issue orders and expect everyone to bow down, kiss your feet, and do what you tell them to.”  
  
“I’m not like that.”  
  
“Yeah, right,” Sam said. “You’re exactly like that.”

* * *

“I hurt you, Sam, and I’m sorry but I don’t think we can go back now.”  
  
“I know, I know that; and I’m fine with it.”   
  
“Really? Because I think you still hate my guts and want me to just blow away …”  
  
“Jason, I’ve never hated you. That’s the problem. It would be so easy to hate you and yet … I don’t … Because I’m just messed up that way.”  
  
She suddenly laughed, a surprising sound to Jason’s ears.   
  
“What’s so funny?”  
  
“You and me. We’re stuck down here, and we’re talking and it almost seems like … we’re … us again …”

* * *

“You know, you haven’t screamed at me in five minutes,” Jason said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.  
  
Sam nodded. “I know, crazy, right? I've spent the last two years of my life screaming and begging and pleading for you and everyone to love me and thank god, I feel like I’ve moved on from that finally.”  
  
Jason nodded. “That’s good. You should never have to beg anyone for anything.”  
  
“I used to beg you to pay attention to me; to make me a priority; to make me whole. But now I’m all about making myself happy … well, happy as is possible.”  
  
“That’s good,” Jason said. “I always wanted you to be happy.”

* * *

“You want me to be happy?” Sam scoffed. “That’s almost laughable. You hate me. It’s so obvious that you would like me to be the one that just blows away …”  
  
Jason shook his head. “No, Sam, not at all. I just want to remind you of what I said earlier: I have never once said I hated you. I have never once said I stopped loving you, or -”  
  
Sam’s eyes snapped to his. “You didn’t say that before. Not exactly. You said you never hated me but … Jason, how can you say you never stopped loving me when you treated me the way you did?”

* * *

Jason sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.   
  
“Am I boring you?” Sam asked.  
  
“No, you’re just … I’m not sure what you want to hear; what you want me to say …”  
  
“Jason, just say what you feel. Tell me the honest truth. I know you think I am just a con who does not know reality from fiction but you’re wrong. Throughout most of our relationship, I was pretty damn faithful and honest to you. Can you say the same? Just tell me how you really feel, Jason, so I can stop wondering and can move on.”

* * *

“I thought you already moved on. You and Lucky-”  
  
“Not meant to be, I guess,” Sam said with a sigh. “Much like everything else in my world, it didn’t work out. Probably my fault as usual too.”  
  
“Do you love him?”  
  
“Does it matter?”  
  
“Yeah, it does. You want me to be honest so -”  
  
Sam looked at her feet. “So I should return the favor?”  
  
Jason nodded. “Yeah.”

* * *

“I did love Lucky - I do. But not in that same way I -” she broke off before she said too much. “Its just I think we got together for the wrong reasons. I wanted to punish you and Elizabeth, and he was hurting too, and so we built this relationship up in our heads that really didn’t even exist. He found out about me watching the kidnapping and dumped me with good reason. I thought we were done for. I thought that I wasn’t meant to be happy but he came back and he brought a smile to my face for awhile. And then before long, like with everyone else, he started judging me. He walked out on me over the whole Jerry thing and then he blamed me for leading Karpov’s men to your son … I love him, Jason, just not like the way …”  
  
“You loved me?”  
  
Sam could only nod.

* * *

“Sam, I -” Jason started. Sam watched him with cool, even brown eyes and he knew she was wondering how he would respond to that.   
  
She hoped that he would say something to the affect of what she had just said but she wasn’t counting on it. Too much time had past; too many angry and hateful words had been said; too many evil actions been perpetrated. It must have dimmed his affection for her - if it had ever been there at all.  
  
“You’re not going to make me say it are you?”  
  
“Say what? I can’t make you do anything, Jason. I never could.”

* * *

Finally, he spoke.  
  
“Sam, I loved you too and I never stopped,” he half-whispered.   
  
She looked at him; really looked into those familiar blue eyes of his and saw the truth staring back at her. She now knew. _He loved her._  
  
“But why, Jason, why if you really loved me did you let me go?”  
  
Jason shook his head, splaying his hands over his face. “I thought I had to. I wanted to believe that you would be better off.”

* * *

“What do you mean?”  
  
“I could never admit I was wrong, Sam.”  
  
“You threw me away, Jason. You treated me like garbage. Worse - like dog shit on your shoe. I wanted you to reach out to me so badly. I literally prayed for it and I don’t even believe in God. I loved you. I could take your death threat - I guess, if I had to. It hurt so fucking bad, but I understood it in a way. I did something very wrong and you were angry. But the thing I could never understand - the thing I have a hard time forgiving - is that the day I walked out on you at Pentonville, you didn’t tell me to come back …”

* * *

“I wanted to. I really did. I just didn’t believe I was in any position to do that. I mean, I was facing life in prison. What could I possibly have offered you? Nothing. I tried to let you go because I thought it was best. Because if I did then I wouldn’t have to admit that I hurt you so much when all I really wanted to do was hold you. And letting you go … it went against every instinct I ever had. When you walked out, I wished I was going with you. I wished I could call you back, but I just couldn’t. I was angry and I was most of all … scared. Scared if I let you back in I would lose you for good.”

* * *

Jason continued, “I thought I would get you killed. And I couldn’t live with that.”  
  
Sam’s eyes moistened with tears and she covered her face for a moment. When she pulled her hand away, she saw that Jason had moved off the bench and was just three feet away from her. She had this sudden need to throw herself into his arms and just cry and let him hold her and chase away all her fears and doubts like he used to when they were happy and so in love. But she couldn’t. Not yet. Time may heal all wounds but there were so many left that it might take a lifetime for them to go away.

* * *

“Maximista, it’s been almost an hour since we locked up those two. They could be dead or close to death by now. Don’t you think, sweetness, that it is time to release them?”  
  
Maxie shook her head. “No. Not yet.” She looked towards the door. “Oh shit!”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Carly must have called in the repairmen. It looks like they are headed for the basement. They can’t go down there till Jason and Sam have kissed and made up and are as happy as we are!”  
  
Spinelli sighed. “Don’t tell me you have another plan, my love.”  
  
Maxie settled her hands on her hips and smiled at him. “Of course I do.”


End file.
